LABOUR AND CAPITAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 24 November 1927, Page 8

LABOUR AND CAPITAL

SIR ALFRED MOND’S APPEAL. NEED FOR CHANGE IN WORKERS’ STATUS London, Oct. 18. The- Mansion House conference for promoting peace in industry has registered a definite advance toward better relations between -Labour and Capital, and is to be followed by similar meetings in provincial cities. Th e point chiefly stressed at the Guildhall was that the management and workers have become copartners. Sir Thomas Inskip, the SolicitorGeneral. said there was a “breath of spring in the air after a long, rough winter, and no time is to bo lost in preparing for the harvest. “No Government,” Sir Thomas continued “could do more than help with the machinery. Its motive-power must come .from the industries, and I believe it will.” RISE IN LIVING STANDARD.' ■t The Lord Mayor read a message from Ben Turner, the new chairman of the Trade Union Congress who said: “Many prejudices stand in the way of a free, frank examination of the causes of commercial and industrial unrest, and we have tn be brave e nough to examine fully our trouble,- and face personal, social, physical, and economic changes if we are to be more than mere talkers about industrial peace.” Charles G. Ammon, representing the postal workers said that since th 6 war there had been a rise in i.he workers’ standard of living, from which they were determined not to be driven back, but there must be give and take, anil a way cnuld be found for securing peace so that the limitation of output and low wages should alike disappear. Sir Alfred Mond, chairman of Brunner.Mond and Co., said the time has come for establishing an industrial peace league involving a radical change in the workers’ status. Much mischief bad been done by making industry a field for political battle, but the inclination displayed by the Trade Union Congress to eliminate “political verbiage” was welcome and indicated that the problem of equal distribution would have to be solved, but the first task was to organise so as to produce goods. Low wages and long hours were a retrograde step. Great production at low cost, high wages and high consumption should be aimed at. MUTUAL GUARANTEES. “If trade unions.” he added, “will allow us to get high production and employers will permit the workers to receive high wages, we shall make progress.” Thomas Shaw, the extile workers’ leader, said that a big improvement could be made immediately if trade union leaders would point out that the workers could not enjoy material in abundance. and if employers would make the following declaration: “If you will help us in every way and give us the best possible production, wo wif guarantee that there will be no question of cutting wages.”